I'm saying it works out to be a problem for many of them, eventually, yes. I've had to help people out; I've had to do the whole "burn to cd and re-rip", and so on. "I want to put my music on my son's player?" Not quite so easy. "Put the songs on a thumbdrive so I can listen to it at work?" Not quite so easy. It's not the worst thing in the world; but I consider the iTunes software a definite point against apple.
I'll also stand by my support of Chinese knockoffs. No vendor restrictions, no DRM. Just some memory, a processor with every codec they can get their hands on, and a few buttons. 75% of the performance, 150% of the versatility, and 10% the price. It's a fair trade-off.
By the way, my post was not a troll. Neither is this. Mods shouldn't get emotionally defensive over a music player.
Absolutely, and I would recommend nearly any one of them over an Apple product. The iPod is nice engineering, good quality, slightly overpriced... but the top-to-bottom iPod/iTunes/iPhone lock-in that Apple tries for seems to cause all sorts of headaches. I'd even recommend a Zune over an iPod, now... but mainly, I think the smart money is on a dirt-cheap chinese knockoff player. They're a little flaky, but can generally play ANYTHING.
I think you and GP are talking two different things. The PCs on store shelves (for consumers) are substantially more AMD-heavy than the PCs sold to businesses (nearly exclusively Intel). Not 100% sure WHY, other than general corporate stupidity... but that can make both yours and his assertions both true.
What does it do for me? It lets me learn a new fact, that I'm happy to report: The graphical power of a console is not the main selling point. This is a lesson Sony and Microsoft made clear that they learned at last E3. That's a good step forward for the entire industry.
You also seem to underestimate the amount of decent games on the Wii. That complaint doesn't hold true anymore. 18 months ago, like the PS3, that would have been a valid complaint. Now, like the PS3, it's not.
I'm pretty confident that any objective reader of our posts will not think I'm the idiot.
Let me guess...you didn't bother to check the amount of both games and exclusive games at the same point in the PS2 and PS3's lifespans before running your mouth off? No you didn't. Of course not.
I know the numbers. Remember... at this point in its lifespan, the PS2 was clearly and substantially a far better selling console than its competitors; at the same point in the PS3's lifespan, it is clearly the least selling console. I haven't said one word about the quality of the games on any console, only the market penetration. The PS3 has a shot at perhaps catching up to the 360, and it hasn't a prayer of catching the Wii. It obviously will never dominate the market like the PS2 did.
"The capability of the consoles is pretty much the same"
QED. You are a total fucking moron.
I think you are perhaps too emotionally invested in a console? Look at the games on the 360 or PS3. They are, generally, of equal quality. Graphics are similar, gameplay is similar. The consoles are close enough in raw power that the talents of the developer and style of the artists is far more important than the console. They are more similar in power, I think, than the PS2 and X-Box were last gen. You're fooling yourself if you think otherwise. I've seen fanboys comparing subtleties of reflections, and counting particles, trying to show how much better the 360/PS3 is than the inverse... completely missing the point that having to do so means the differences are irrelevant.
Of course, the Wii has significantly lower graphics capability, and significantly outsold the others, so the point is a bit moot.
Let me guess...you use to be a Dreamcast fanboy...
Well, I am a Dreamcast FAN. Just like I am a PS2 FAN. Hell, I'm a fan of all the consoles. PS3 is a great console, no doubt a better piece of engineering than a 360. However, Sony management ruined any chance at them dominating the gaming industry this gen. No need to lie to yourself and pretend they'll pull out a sudden victory on year four or five.
It's kind of interesting, how you can look through a thread, and notice certain characteristics that show that various anonymous cowards are in fact the same person. The interspaced post/replay, doublespaced format, the "50 million PSPs sold worldwide" phrase, matches up with several different AC posts in this thread.
And that's fine; no rule that you can't post passionately many times. It just made me wonder, is there software that will take text samples, and calculate a similarity index to other text samples? We all have quirks, like whether we double space after a period, or the nature of the mistakes we repeatedly make (like the apostrophe in "1980's music").
Once Nintendo gets some new ideas for their games, i may invest in a WEEEEEEEEEEEE, but until then, my 32" tv will remain intact and not have a WEEEEEEEEEEmote sticking out of it.
That's... kind of immature. Ironic, because that's probably what you think of a Wii.
The PS3 library of games is going to easily outdo the legendary PS2 library.
Wow, that's enthusiasm. I'm afraid the PS3 library will never approach 25% of the PS2 library, at least in quantity and variety. Heck, it'll never pass the Wii's library. The economics don't work out. The PS3 games are several times more expensive to create, and are selling to a base that is significantly smaller than the PS2.
The same can be said for the 360. That's why there's every reason to build cross-platform games. The capability of the consoles is pretty much the same, and you get nearly twice the sales for a small investment. Add up the 360 & PS3 consoles out there, and you get a number close to the Wii (and about a third of the PS2, if I remember right).
this is a way of Google profiting off of trademark infringement and piracy.
You're implying it's trademark infringement and piracy, but it's not either. A trademark does not allow the holder to forbid people from using the trademarked word. "Looking for Rosetta Stone? Babel Books is better and cheaper" is completely legal.
You're criticizing Google for doing a normal and legal business practice, because you don't like it. That's fine; not everything legal is good. But, don't imply that it's a crime when it's not.
That's not entirely true. You can't use the logo to deceptively suggest your book is authorized by or affiliated to the trademark owner (Hansson). But you're well within your rights to, withing the book, say: "This is the Rails logo:" and include the image.
You can use a trademark for commercial purposes. You can say, on the cover, "This book is all about Microsoft Windows", and microsoft can't stop you, because it's factual. It's not suggesting the book is endorsed by MS. The key point is whether you are using the trademark in order to confuse/deceive the consumer about who they are doing business with, and which product they are purchasing; that's the problem trademarks are intended to solve.
So? A trademarks doesn't give the holder any control over a word. I can say "Linux is better than Windows", and there's nothing MS can do about it. I can even bid on "Windows" as a search term, and say "Looking for Windows? Get Linux, it's better."
Trademark is intended solely to stop one company from representing its products as being another company's products. If a company doesn't pretend they're SELLING Rosetta Stone products, there should be no problem referencing their competitor... and that's GOOD.
I don't program in either, so I can't speak to the advantages from the development side; but I know that with Mono/.net apps, I've never experienced that 'Oh, crap, this is Java' feeling that I feel about twenty seconds after launching a new program.
I know that, theoretically, java apps are fast, compile well, and so on... but in practice, they just feel like trudging through sludge. Every single time. Perhaps that's just because I'm dealing with them on the desktop, instead of on the server... but still, when I've got dozens of examples and it's invariably true, it eventually stops being anecdotal and starts becoming data.
I agree that we are too concerned about nudity. It's bizarre that the 70's were more open and accepting of nudity in film, for instance, that the 2000's are.
However, you can't directly compare it to violence. Explicit sex is media is frowned upon for entirely different reasons than violence. I'm not worried about my son, my daughter, or 99.9% of anybody else's kids wanting to go out and commit murder because they see it in a game. However, sex is a temptation. The kids would be weird if they DIDN'T want to go out and have sex... or lock themselves up in their bedroom and watch sex all day.
Yeah, I think it's too restrictive. I don't see anything wrong with a child seeing a breast. But in fairness, the current stigma is not because sex is considered WORSE than violence. It's considered more SEDUCTIVE than violence.
But let's not get 'realistic' graphics confused with 'beautiful' graphics. The massive amount of 'realistic' 3d games out there tend to blur together... but when you come across a truly beautiful game with painted or drawn art, it can still take your breath away.
The last game I played that did that was Grim Grimoire on the PS2. Beautiful spritework; antiquated console, sure... but ART hasn't changed in the last four years. Hell, there are games on the SNES that are more attractive than a lot of PS3/360 games.
Getting the tech to take better and better photographs hasn't rendered paintings obsolete. That's probably how I think of comparing realistic 3d to stylistic sprite/art based games.
Yeah, it's interesting... the microelectronics are, obviously, terribly outmoded... but in a lot of ways, the physical construction of those pcs from the 80's are far better than much of what we get today. I've held laptops in my hands that I swear I could shatter with a firm twist. Plus... keyboards have generally declined in quality.
I guess it's because materials technology/manufacturing has been pretty mature for decades; progress in the last 20 years has been focused on cutting cost and eliminating waste, rather than building things stronger/better/more accessible.
Miles per gallon, or kilometers per liter, is only a useful measurement when we're comparing vehicles with the same fuel. Getting a 25% increase in miles per gallon of gasoline would be great. But is 568 kilometers on a liter of Hydrogen even GOOD? How expensive is that hydrogen? (How many kilos of coal were burned to generate the energy to generate the hydrogen?) How dangerous is a fast-moving vehicle with a liter of hydrogen?
This may be great, but the statistic is pretty meaningless. They could get a lot BETTER miles per gallon out of a gallon of plutonium, I'd wager, if we're making those sorts of comparisons. Don't even get me started on antimatter.
Thank you, anonymous coward, for posting one of the more sensible comments in the thread.
I think a lot of people in this thread believe that the Bush administration banned stem cell research. They didn't; they didn't even ban creating new lines. They simply didn't FUND it. That's not unreasonable, when a significant portion of the population has ethical problems with it.
Re:"The magnetic field lines are clearly visible.
on
Sunspots Return
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· Score: 1
Argh. "That DOESN'T mean that there are 'lines of gravity'."
Re:"The magnetic field lines are clearly visible.
on
Sunspots Return
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· Score: 4, Insightful
They're no more real than latitude lines. The magnetic field is continuous, it doesn't possess discrete lines. Objects IN the field can form a line, but that is more of a spontaneous symmetry breaking effect... I.E., iron filings could form a hundred distinguishable lines, or a thousand. The filings experiment is neat, but I think it gave millions of schoolkids the idea that there is an actual number of preferred lines running from one end of the magnet to the other.
A cone doesn't have a finite number of preferred paths down from the top. But if you pour water on the top, the water will run downhill and form a number of discrete streams. That does mean that there are 'lines of gravity'.
If we're GOING to have a single unique index for each citizen, sure, encrypt it and make it difficult to pull. But still, it'll leak. I think I'd rather have a simple card with a nine digit number, but make it DIFFERENT for every purpose. I want one number for taxes, a different number for credit, a different number for each and every business that I transact with. If somebody can crack my number for a single credit card, fine. It won't ruin my entire life. The problem with the SS# is not that it's so easy to crack or obtain; it's that it's a single point of failure for nearly every financial aspect of your life.
That's not how people weigh choices. They will wonder "Will I ever need to travel more than 200 miles? Yes? Ok, that rules out the Tesla."
That would basically be my thought process. Unless there is some huge benefit to driving a Tesla, it would simply not even be worth considering; if I bought one, I would then have to turn around and buy a second 'real' car.
There's a lot of factors. Piracy -> DRM -> problems -> Piracy. Throw in terrible operating systems, an almost infinite number of hardware configurations... I'm surprised as many games get made for the PC as still do. There's certain games PCs do better than consoles, but that number is shrinking. Any advantage the mouse/keyboard combo gave the PC (which was substantial) is shrinking; it nearly went away with the wiimote. The only REAL advantage that the PC has is (1) modability with user generated content and scripts, and (2) the presence of small, independent games. As a platform for most big-budget, AAA games... I don't think a sentimental fondness for the pc is going to overcome the many difficulties in the platform.
(I LOVE gaming on my pc... although I rarely play anything from the last five years.)
Slashdot Mirror
I'm saying it works out to be a problem for many of them, eventually, yes. I've had to help people out; I've had to do the whole "burn to cd and re-rip", and so on. "I want to put my music on my son's player?" Not quite so easy. "Put the songs on a thumbdrive so I can listen to it at work?" Not quite so easy. It's not the worst thing in the world; but I consider the iTunes software a definite point against apple.
I'll also stand by my support of Chinese knockoffs. No vendor restrictions, no DRM. Just some memory, a processor with every codec they can get their hands on, and a few buttons. 75% of the performance, 150% of the versatility, and 10% the price. It's a fair trade-off.
By the way, my post was not a troll. Neither is this. Mods shouldn't get emotionally defensive over a music player.
Absolutely, and I would recommend nearly any one of them over an Apple product. The iPod is nice engineering, good quality, slightly overpriced... but the top-to-bottom iPod/iTunes/iPhone lock-in that Apple tries for seems to cause all sorts of headaches. I'd even recommend a Zune over an iPod, now... but mainly, I think the smart money is on a dirt-cheap chinese knockoff player. They're a little flaky, but can generally play ANYTHING.
I think you and GP are talking two different things. The PCs on store shelves (for consumers) are substantially more AMD-heavy than the PCs sold to businesses (nearly exclusively Intel). Not 100% sure WHY, other than general corporate stupidity... but that can make both yours and his assertions both true.
What does it do for me? It lets me learn a new fact, that I'm happy to report: The graphical power of a console is not the main selling point. This is a lesson Sony and Microsoft made clear that they learned at last E3. That's a good step forward for the entire industry.
You also seem to underestimate the amount of decent games on the Wii. That complaint doesn't hold true anymore. 18 months ago, like the PS3, that would have been a valid complaint. Now, like the PS3, it's not.
Wow, are you a fucking idiot.
I'm pretty confident that any objective reader of our posts will not think I'm the idiot.
Let me guess...you didn't bother to check the amount of both games and exclusive games at the same point in the PS2 and PS3's lifespans before running your mouth off? No you didn't. Of course not.
I know the numbers. Remember... at this point in its lifespan, the PS2 was clearly and substantially a far better selling console than its competitors; at the same point in the PS3's lifespan, it is clearly the least selling console. I haven't said one word about the quality of the games on any console, only the market penetration. The PS3 has a shot at perhaps catching up to the 360, and it hasn't a prayer of catching the Wii. It obviously will never dominate the market like the PS2 did.
"The capability of the consoles is pretty much the same"
QED. You are a total fucking moron.
I think you are perhaps too emotionally invested in a console? Look at the games on the 360 or PS3. They are, generally, of equal quality. Graphics are similar, gameplay is similar. The consoles are close enough in raw power that the talents of the developer and style of the artists is far more important than the console. They are more similar in power, I think, than the PS2 and X-Box were last gen. You're fooling yourself if you think otherwise. I've seen fanboys comparing subtleties of reflections, and counting particles, trying to show how much better the 360/PS3 is than the inverse... completely missing the point that having to do so means the differences are irrelevant.
Of course, the Wii has significantly lower graphics capability, and significantly outsold the others, so the point is a bit moot.
Let me guess...you use to be a Dreamcast fanboy...
Well, I am a Dreamcast FAN. Just like I am a PS2 FAN. Hell, I'm a fan of all the consoles. PS3 is a great console, no doubt a better piece of engineering than a 360. However, Sony management ruined any chance at them dominating the gaming industry this gen. No need to lie to yourself and pretend they'll pull out a sudden victory on year four or five.
It's kind of interesting, how you can look through a thread, and notice certain characteristics that show that various anonymous cowards are in fact the same person. The interspaced post/replay, doublespaced format, the "50 million PSPs sold worldwide" phrase, matches up with several different AC posts in this thread.
And that's fine; no rule that you can't post passionately many times. It just made me wonder, is there software that will take text samples, and calculate a similarity index to other text samples? We all have quirks, like whether we double space after a period, or the nature of the mistakes we repeatedly make (like the apostrophe in "1980's music").
Once Nintendo gets some new ideas for their games, i may invest in a WEEEEEEEEEEEE, but until then, my 32" tv will remain intact and not have a WEEEEEEEEEEmote sticking out of it.
That's... kind of immature. Ironic, because that's probably what you think of a Wii.
The PS3 library of games is going to easily outdo the legendary PS2 library.
Wow, that's enthusiasm. I'm afraid the PS3 library will never approach 25% of the PS2 library, at least in quantity and variety. Heck, it'll never pass the Wii's library. The economics don't work out. The PS3 games are several times more expensive to create, and are selling to a base that is significantly smaller than the PS2.
The same can be said for the 360. That's why there's every reason to build cross-platform games. The capability of the consoles is pretty much the same, and you get nearly twice the sales for a small investment. Add up the 360 & PS3 consoles out there, and you get a number close to the Wii (and about a third of the PS2, if I remember right).
this is a way of Google profiting off of trademark infringement and piracy.
You're implying it's trademark infringement and piracy, but it's not either. A trademark does not allow the holder to forbid people from using the trademarked word. "Looking for Rosetta Stone? Babel Books is better and cheaper" is completely legal.
You're criticizing Google for doing a normal and legal business practice, because you don't like it. That's fine; not everything legal is good. But, don't imply that it's a crime when it's not.
That's not entirely true. You can't use the logo to deceptively suggest your book is authorized by or affiliated to the trademark owner (Hansson). But you're well within your rights to, withing the book, say: "This is the Rails logo:" and include the image.
You can use a trademark for commercial purposes. You can say, on the cover, "This book is all about Microsoft Windows", and microsoft can't stop you, because it's factual. It's not suggesting the book is endorsed by MS. The key point is whether you are using the trademark in order to confuse/deceive the consumer about who they are doing business with, and which product they are purchasing; that's the problem trademarks are intended to solve.
So? A trademarks doesn't give the holder any control over a word. I can say "Linux is better than Windows", and there's nothing MS can do about it. I can even bid on "Windows" as a search term, and say "Looking for Windows? Get Linux, it's better."
Trademark is intended solely to stop one company from representing its products as being another company's products. If a company doesn't pretend they're SELLING Rosetta Stone products, there should be no problem referencing their competitor... and that's GOOD.
I don't program in either, so I can't speak to the advantages from the development side; but I know that with Mono/.net apps, I've never experienced that 'Oh, crap, this is Java' feeling that I feel about twenty seconds after launching a new program.
I know that, theoretically, java apps are fast, compile well, and so on... but in practice, they just feel like trudging through sludge. Every single time. Perhaps that's just because I'm dealing with them on the desktop, instead of on the server... but still, when I've got dozens of examples and it's invariably true, it eventually stops being anecdotal and starts becoming data.
I agree that we are too concerned about nudity. It's bizarre that the 70's were more open and accepting of nudity in film, for instance, that the 2000's are.
However, you can't directly compare it to violence. Explicit sex is media is frowned upon for entirely different reasons than violence. I'm not worried about my son, my daughter, or 99.9% of anybody else's kids wanting to go out and commit murder because they see it in a game. However, sex is a temptation. The kids would be weird if they DIDN'T want to go out and have sex... or lock themselves up in their bedroom and watch sex all day.
Yeah, I think it's too restrictive. I don't see anything wrong with a child seeing a breast. But in fairness, the current stigma is not because sex is considered WORSE than violence. It's considered more SEDUCTIVE than violence.
But let's not get 'realistic' graphics confused with 'beautiful' graphics. The massive amount of 'realistic' 3d games out there tend to blur together... but when you come across a truly beautiful game with painted or drawn art, it can still take your breath away.
The last game I played that did that was Grim Grimoire on the PS2. Beautiful spritework; antiquated console, sure... but ART hasn't changed in the last four years. Hell, there are games on the SNES that are more attractive than a lot of PS3/360 games.
Getting the tech to take better and better photographs hasn't rendered paintings obsolete. That's probably how I think of comparing realistic 3d to stylistic sprite/art based games.
I've been more scared and nerve-wracked in a single game of X-Com than in many of the 'hyper realistic' gory zombie games that have come out recently.
Yeah, it's interesting... the microelectronics are, obviously, terribly outmoded... but in a lot of ways, the physical construction of those pcs from the 80's are far better than much of what we get today. I've held laptops in my hands that I swear I could shatter with a firm twist. Plus... keyboards have generally declined in quality.
I guess it's because materials technology/manufacturing has been pretty mature for decades; progress in the last 20 years has been focused on cutting cost and eliminating waste, rather than building things stronger/better/more accessible.
You don't see the foolishness (and danger) of Universities and research labs slavering after federal funds?
Miles per gallon, or kilometers per liter, is only a useful measurement when we're comparing vehicles with the same fuel. Getting a 25% increase in miles per gallon of gasoline would be great. But is 568 kilometers on a liter of Hydrogen even GOOD? How expensive is that hydrogen? (How many kilos of coal were burned to generate the energy to generate the hydrogen?) How dangerous is a fast-moving vehicle with a liter of hydrogen?
This may be great, but the statistic is pretty meaningless. They could get a lot BETTER miles per gallon out of a gallon of plutonium, I'd wager, if we're making those sorts of comparisons. Don't even get me started on antimatter.
Thank you, anonymous coward, for posting one of the more sensible comments in the thread.
I think a lot of people in this thread believe that the Bush administration banned stem cell research. They didn't; they didn't even ban creating new lines. They simply didn't FUND it. That's not unreasonable, when a significant portion of the population has ethical problems with it.
Argh. "That DOESN'T mean that there are 'lines of gravity'."
They're no more real than latitude lines. The magnetic field is continuous, it doesn't possess discrete lines. Objects IN the field can form a line, but that is more of a spontaneous symmetry breaking effect... I.E., iron filings could form a hundred distinguishable lines, or a thousand. The filings experiment is neat, but I think it gave millions of schoolkids the idea that there is an actual number of preferred lines running from one end of the magnet to the other.
A cone doesn't have a finite number of preferred paths down from the top. But if you pour water on the top, the water will run downhill and form a number of discrete streams. That does mean that there are 'lines of gravity'.
If we're GOING to have a single unique index for each citizen, sure, encrypt it and make it difficult to pull. But still, it'll leak. I think I'd rather have a simple card with a nine digit number, but make it DIFFERENT for every purpose. I want one number for taxes, a different number for credit, a different number for each and every business that I transact with. If somebody can crack my number for a single credit card, fine. It won't ruin my entire life. The problem with the SS# is not that it's so easy to crack or obtain; it's that it's a single point of failure for nearly every financial aspect of your life.
That's not how people weigh choices. They will wonder "Will I ever need to travel more than 200 miles? Yes? Ok, that rules out the Tesla."
That would basically be my thought process. Unless there is some huge benefit to driving a Tesla, it would simply not even be worth considering; if I bought one, I would then have to turn around and buy a second 'real' car.
There's a lot of factors. Piracy -> DRM -> problems -> Piracy. Throw in terrible operating systems, an almost infinite number of hardware configurations... I'm surprised as many games get made for the PC as still do. There's certain games PCs do better than consoles, but that number is shrinking. Any advantage the mouse/keyboard combo gave the PC (which was substantial) is shrinking; it nearly went away with the wiimote. The only REAL advantage that the PC has is (1) modability with user generated content and scripts, and (2) the presence of small, independent games. As a platform for most big-budget, AAA games... I don't think a sentimental fondness for the pc is going to overcome the many difficulties in the platform.
(I LOVE gaming on my pc... although I rarely play anything from the last five years.)
Like math? How ridiculous, simplistically thinking an abstract concept can be described as 'true' or 'false'. How plebeian, how red state.